This is an undated handout photo of Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who has agreed to take a semi-retired status on the court to allow her son's appointment to the panel to proceed. Her decision opens the way for University of California-Berkeley law professor William Fletcher to take a seat on the panel. She has a Seattle office. less

This is an undated handout photo of Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who has agreed to take a semi-retired status on the court to allow her son's appointment to the panel to ... more

Judge Fletcher, appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, was the third woman ever named to the nation's largest federal appeals court. She was transferred to semire-tired "senior" status in 1998 at the insistence of Senate Republicans who voted to confirm her son, William Fletcher, a UC Berkeley law professor nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton.

Betty Fletcher maintained a full caseload, however, and was still hearing cases until she was hospitalized a week before her death, said the court's chief judge, Alex Kozinski.

"She was one of the sharpest judges I've ever sat with," said Kozinski, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. "I didn't always agree with her, but I was never in doubt about where she stood or what she thought."

"Her character, courage and dedication to the poor, homeless, the immigrant and to giving all access to justice were just a few of her incredible attributes," said Judge Dorothy Nelson, a Carter appointee.

Judge Fletcher, a Tacoma native, graduated with honors from Stanford in 1943, took time off to care for her children and then enrolled in the University of Washington Law School, where she graduated first in her class in 1956.

After struggling to find a job in a profession where few doors were open to women, she spent 23 years with a business law firm in Seattle before her judicial appointment.

On the bench, she was known for her high, wispy voice and for her influential opinions.

In two environmental cases in 2008, Judge Fletcher rejected Bush administration fuel-economy standards for light trucks because they failed to consider the impact of emissions on global warming, and required the Navy to protect endangered whales from underwater sonar tests.

When the appeals court in 1997 upheld the "don't ask, don't tell" law, which banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, Judge Fletcher dissented with arguments that resonated 14 years later when Congress repealed the law.

Finding that the ban was based on prejudice, she said gays and lesbians were just as capable as other soldiers and no more prone to misconduct, and declared that even in the military, "an entire class may not be singled out for disfavored treatment because of animosities."

Judge Fletcher's husband of 69 years, law Professor Robert Fletcher, died last year. She is survived by her son William, who remains a judge, and by three other children, Paul Fletcher of Seattle, Kathy Fletcher of Seattle and Susan French of Los Angeles.

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